I spent the weekend with my Dad and my step-mom, which means two things happened: 1) I ate way too much and 2) I watched way too much CNN.  Both had me leaving the weekend feeling…very full.

If you know me at all you know I am very adamant about NOT watching the news for many reasons that I will spare you now.  But given the state of the world in the past week or so, it hasn’t felt right to live in my blissful ignorance.  Between the natural disasters and the man-made disasters I am absolutely bursting at the seams with all of the feelings I strive to avoid by not watching the news: anger, frustration, helplessness, blame, sadness, guilt, shame, compassion…the list goes on.

The feeling that infuriates me the most is the feeling of helplessness.  Because I’m a do-er. I see a problem, I want to solve it. I like black and white, right and wrong, I hate loathe and despise GRAY. So…what are we supposed to do? Sign more petitions? Send more money? Join the salvation army, the army, the peace corps, stop buying gas, become a vegan…I mean nothing ever seems to be the right thing, or enough.  So more often than not, we just don’t do anything.  And life continues on…more wars, more deaths, more money, more pollution… .

So today, here’s what I decided we have to do. We have to counteract. While mother nature and our leaders destroy… we must create.  We must create beautiful, positive, wonderful things.  I am begging you today to create.  If you are a painter, PAINT. If you are a photographer, TAKE PHOTOGRAPHS. If you are a singer, SING BABY SING, if you are a songwriter or a musicIan, PLAY, WRITE, BAKE, DESIGN, SKETCH, KNIT, SEW, GLUE, DANCE, SCULPT… just create!  For love. Not for money or power or respect or attention or destruction…just for the love of what you do.  No more excuses.  If not for you, then at the very least for everyone who needs to see it. 

Take pictures, make recordings, make a written account of it…and send it to me. I wanna see it and hear it and know it, I need more beauty for my eyes and ears everyday to help tip the scales…  

“Give us more to see.”- Sondheim